TOPEKA — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, a native of Russell, was honored by the Kansas Republican Party during its annual convention last weekend in Topeka.

Dole was awarded the Party’s 2014 Huck Boyd Volunteer of the Year Award.

Dole, 91 and in fragile health, visited all 105 Kansas counties last year. He “gave unwavering support for the Republican ticket and campaigned non-stop in the last two weeks of the election,” said state chairman Kelly Arnold, Wichita.

“The award was particularly meaningful because Huck Boyd was the person who got Bob Dole started in national politics back in 1960,” said 2nd District Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, R-KS, who accepted the award on Dole’s behalf.

Huck Boyd was a noted small-town newspaper publisher in Phillipsburg and twice a candidate for governor. Boyd represented Kansas on the Republican National Committee for 20 years until his death in 1987.